RCMP check stop in Shuswap results in unusual chase

CHASE - A driver who avoided a police check stop in the Shuswap and abandoned their vehicle on an isolated forest service road may still be at large.

RCMP say between July 22 and Aug. 15, officers conducted seven vehicle check stops in Chase, Pritchard, Lee Creek and Seymour Arm. Officers handed out a few tickets and issued some verbal warnings, but things went differently on the night of July 29 at Seymour Arm.

Sgt. Gary Heebner says in a media release the driver of the 1993 Honda Prelude avoided the check stop by making a high-speed U-turn and leaving the area. Officers later found the vehicle abandoned on a forest service road and the engine was still warm. The exhaust system had fallen apart and the car was no longer drivable.

Hebner says police smelled liquor in the interior of the car and think the driver fled into the forested area after the car broke down.

Officers called out to the driver, trying to draw him from the woods and take him back to Seymour Arm safely, but he would not show himself.

"Another check of the vehicle at 2:00 a.m. showed that someone, presumably the driver, took out his frustration by smashing the windshield and jumping on the hood and roof," Heebner says in the release. "Several beer cans that had not been present earlier now littered the ground around the car."

The driver was not on the scene and police don't say if any arrests have been made.

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